Novelist David Anne was forced to put his home on the market yesterday after losing a costly high court battle to get rid of a "monstrous" neighbouring lime tree.
His lawyers told a judge that expert evidence backed his claim that over many years the 120-year-old lime, which is protected by a preservation order, had posed a health risk by depositing "tons" of treacle-like honeydew on to the thatch at Bridge Cottage, Amport, near Andover, Hampshire, a grade II listed building in a conservation area.
But Mr Justice Forbes, sitting in London, ruled that a Test Valley borough council environmental health officer had not acted unreasonably or irrationally when she refused to condemn the tree as a statutory nuisance and serve a notice requiring it to be felled.
Mr Anne, 70, estimates the case has cost him over £30,000. He said after the ruling: "That awful, monstrous tree has ruined my life - I could scream.
"Now we have no choice but to put the property on the market."
Mr Anne, a retired businessman who has written two horror novels, spoke of his despair at having to leave the cottage, where he and his wife have lived since 1964, and at having to give up his asparagus bed and the trout stream which runs by their home.
"The stream is full of beautiful brown trout which are pets and come to me to be fed every day," he said. "My asparagus bed supplies half the village in season."
Mr Anne has fought a 10-year battle to get rid of the tree, which is over 100ft high, arguing that it was causing severe allergy problems to him and his wife Nicola, 65.
In yesterday's latest and apparently final clash over the tree, he and his wife challenged a refusal by Test Valley council environmental health officer Sarah Newman to condemn the lime as a statutory nuisance and serve a notice on his neighbour, Colonel David Mallam, requiring him to cut it down.
He complained that the honeydew excreted by aphids, which have regularly colonised the tree, has so damaged the thatch that he has had to replace it three times in 30 years, at a cost of £20,000 a time.
The honeydew encouraged moulds and mould spores which accelerated the decomposition of the thatch, and caused the Annes to suffer persistent nausea, nasal stuffiness, running eyes, headaches, abdominal pain and cramps.
Richard Ground, appearing for Test Valley council, had told the judge that Ms Newman had carried out "very thorough" investigations including consulting a tree expert and a highly-experienced thatcher. There was insufficient medical evidence, allowing for the fact that aphids had not been a serious problem this year, to show that the allergy symptoms suffered by the Annes were directly attributable to the tree.
Ms Newman had concluded that mould and mould spores occurred elsewhere in the local environment and it could not be shown that the tree was creating a statutory nuisance.
Press Association
